DHAKA, June 1, 2023 (BSS) - Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today said the government is designing an umbrella investment programme to make the five rivers surrounding the Dhaka city pollution-free aiming at turning the capital into a livable one.

He came up with up the disclosure while placing the budget for fiscal 2023-24 in parliament here.

In his budget speech, Kamal said the umbrella investment programme is being designed with the aim of making the five rivers - Buriganga, Shitalakshya, Balu, Turag and Dhaleshwari - and several canals encircling the Dhaka city pollution-free and free from illegal encroachment, bringing back the lost economic vibrancy of the city and turning it into a livable one with clean environment.

About environmental protection, he said the 'Environment Conservation Rules, 2023' have been formulated updating the existing 'Environment Conservation Rules, 1997' in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals.

Besides, the finance minister, the Air Pollution Control Rules, 2022 have been framed, while air quality is being monitored through 16 Continuous Air Quality Monitoring Centres (CAMS) and 15 Compact Air Quality Monitoring Centres (C-CAMS) in Dhaka and other divisional and industrial cities and Air Quality Index (AQI) is being released on website on daily basis.

Out of 2,894 industrial establishments emitting liquid waste requiring industrial pollution control, 2,382 industrial establishments have installed ETP (achieved ETP coverage 82.31 percent), he said.

Claiming that in protecting the environment, special importance is also given to forestation, Kamal said as a member country of UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Bangladesh has taken initiatives to update the 'National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan' following the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.